Google opens PowerMeter API — and the field for energy efficiency apps

By Camille Rickets in GreenBeat, March 3 2010

Google announced today that it has released the application programming interface (the API) for Google PowerMeter, the tool it launched last year to tell users in real time how much energy they are using and, more importantly, what it is costing them. The decision gives what was a vaguely informative service the potential to spawn gadgetry and software that could change the way we use energy in our daily lives.

PowerMeter collects energy consumption data via two channels: smart meters installed by Google’s utility partners (a handful of utilities across the U.S. and Europe working with the search engine), and device partners like AlertMe and Energy Inc.’s The Energy Detective, which are both capable of collecting and transmitting the relevant data without going through the meter. These were the only people with access to the API before today.